Bless the LORD, O my
soul;
and all that is
within me,
Bless His holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my
soul,
and forget not all
His benefits;
Who forgives all your
iniquities,
Who heals all your
diseases,
Who redeems your life
from destruction,
Who crowns you with
lovingkindness
and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your
mouth with good things,
so that your youth is
renewed
like the eagle’s.
Psalm 103:1–5
This
Scripture gives the best definition of the soul for the Hebrew word nephesh
which comes from the verbal form naphash and refers to the essence of life, the
act of breathing, and nephesh refers to all that a person is, that which is
within a person and Scripture has as its goal to make the inner and outer
consistent. The writer of the above Scripture did not say for God to bless him,
rather to bless his soul, all that is within him, and this God does by
redeeming your life from destruction and by giving to man His benefits. The
good news is that our youth is renewed and we can fly as the eagle. Therefore,
to understand the doctrine of the soul, all that we are, is more than some
simple understanding, it is to learn what man has attempted to understand the
soul and how they have been misguided by their culture, their presuppositions
and their propositions. The burden of proof lies with those developing
theologies so that the truth may be known. We must look at their proposals and
theories as they often argue from their assumptions and not from evidence or
from a source of truth. The truth in regards to religious dogmas must be
founded on the only source of truth that has been revealed to man: Scripture,
and Scripture must interpret Scripture or else it is man’s thinking, his
rationale that determines truth and this from being sinful. Therefore, if a
person does not have a good translation, and if a person does not hold to the
fact that the Bible has been preserved by God throughout all generations then
Scripture will not be used as a source for determining if a personal
assumption, their presupposition is anything more than wishful thinking or actually
true.
We have
examined preexistence of the soul and found that Scripture never speaks that
the soul was anterior to creation. We began to look whether or not the soul is
generated from one parent to a child and this we must examine to know if this
is true. Remember that if we believe that the soul is immediately created we
are known as Creationists, and if we believe that the soul is generated by our
parents then we are Traducianists. Where do you stand on this debate? What is
your Church teaching as to the doctrine of the soul? This is important for the
doctrine of Original Sin is at the center of this debate. So then let us
examine Traducianism. What is meant by this term is first a denial that the
soul is created, and secondly that the soul is generated by the law of
generation, that it is derived solely by the parents, that the whole man, his
soul, and body is begotten. There are those who are Traducianists that go so
far in their theory of the soul that the soul is susceptible of “abscission,
and division,” so that a portion of the soul of the parents is communicated to
the child; is this the way that man becomes sinful? Or as other Traducianists
believe, that the soul is a true derivation from the parent. Both teach that
there is numerical identity of the essence of Adam and his posterity, both to
his body and to his soul. Knowledgeable Traducianists will admit that the
Scriptures are silent on this proposal. Augustine in his debate and rebuttal to
Pelagius over sin and the soul had this to say: “Concerning very obscure debate on helping
clear Scripture specific evidence”
(translation mine), showing that there is not evidenc that could be produced to
give a specific answer by them for proof of their assumption. Some would point
to the Scripture that Seth, Adam’s on was begotten in Adam’s image (Genesis
5:3) but this is not to be taken more than that Seth was like his father for in
the previous verse Adam was said to be made in the likeness of God (Genesis
5:1). This was not that Adam became a god, rather that Adam, as man, had the
likeness of God in the ability to do what no other creation could do; think,
use rationale, and to worship God his creator. These Scriptures shed no
illumination on the subject which is mysterious, the process of generation and
how the likeness of a child is obtained by physical causes. Scripture does
teach that like does beget like: “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). This verse simply
states that all that is begotten from another source is sameness and in this
case it is clear from the context that Jesus is showing that a corrupt nature
is transmitted from parent to child. To admit more than this is assuming what
Scripture is not saying, a taking out of context the meaning for Jesus to say
what He did so that Scripture is made to prove their assumption. If a person
argues from silence, which many do, then there can be no proof of what is
argued. For instance, Eve was never shown to have received the breath of life
given by God to Adam, yet we know that it was done, Eve was alive and all the
animals too were created and alive, so that all that is being said is that God
created every thing, on earth. This is nothing said of God’s breathing into man
the breath of life to be a priciple of reationa life. Yet, we do know that it
was done.
I will continue this
examination in the next blogs so that we can come to know the origin of the
soul Scripturally. Much of our theology relies on our understanding of this
doctrine and especially the doctrine of Original Sin.
Fist, I thank my God through Jesus Christ
For you all, that your
faith is spoken
Of throughout the whole world.
Romans 1:8
May this be true of you and me
Richard L. Crumb
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